North County audit confirms training deficiencies with security guards

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A North County Transit District audit has confirmed, among other things, deficiencies in the training records of its security officers.

The audit was prompted by an inewsource expose last month, which raised concerns about how prepared the private security officers are who patrol the agency’s trains and stations.

The audit confirmed many of our findings, including:

“Training files were lacking in organization, uniformity, and all of the files were missing training documentation in one or more required areas.

“28 files with missing or expired first aid and CPR cards”

“17 were missing chemical agent certifications”

There was no documentation in any of the files that the security guards maintained valid California drivers licenses

“Nor was there any indication the guards received Peace Officers Standards in Training (POST) 832 PC training.”

North County found Universal “is failing to meet the contractual requirement,” and “communicated specific corrective actions to UPS… by way of a Notice of Intent to Terminate” the contract on Feb. 26.

According to the report, Universal has presented corrective actions along with an updated training status report.

At the meeting Thursday, one board member asked if there was any way North County could recoup some of its losses, since Universal’s practices have failed to meet contractual requirements for “at least a year,” according to Tom Zoll, the chief of North County’s transit enforcement.

North County’s Executive Director Matthew Tucker responded by saying that wouldn’t be possible, but the agency will conduct “spot audits” in the future which should remedy the situation.

Universal’s five-year contract, worth $17.6 million, expires in November of this year. North County is in the process of putting together a Request For Proposals for the new contract term.